English

Noun

wisp ‎(plural wisps)

1. A small bundle, as of straw or other like substance; any slender, flexible structure or group.

   A wisp of smoke rose from the candle for a few moments after he blew it out.

   A wisp of hair escaped her barrette and whipped wildly in the wind.

   • Dryden

     in a small basket, on a wisp of hay

2. A whisk, or small broom.
3. A will o' the wisp, or ignis fatuus.
   • Tennyson

     the wisp that flickers where no foot can tread

Translations

Derived terms

• will o' the wisp

Verb

wisp ‎(third-person singular simple present wisps, present participle wisping, simple past and past participle wisped)

1. To brush or dress, as with a wisp.
2. (Britain, dialect) To rumple.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Halliwell to this entry?)

3. (intransitive) To produce a wisp, as of smoke.
   • 1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Library of America, 1985, p.70:

     To Temple, sitting in the cottonseed-hulls and the corn-cobs, the sound was no louder than the striking of a match: a short, minor sound shutting down the scene, the instant, with a profound finality, completely isolating it, and she sat there, her legs straight before her, her hands limp and palm-up on her lap, looking at Popeye's tight back and the ridges of his coat across his shoulders as he leaned out the door, the pistol behind him, against his flank, wisping thinly along his leg.